. When the first lockdown was announced in March last year, theatres across the country went dark. A number of theatres have not reopened. Even before lockdown, theatres were struggling for audiences. Now their fate hangs in the balance. “Gatherings – in the case of theatre audiences – are deemed to be super-spreaders of the virus, so festivals have been cancelled, theatres shut and curfews have restricted people going out at night, making theatre unviable,” says playwright and cultural activist Mike van Graan, who is part of the Sustaining Theatre and Dance (STAND) Foundation that st...